RICHMOND — The early slate of the schedule has tough on the Fillies as they fell 0-2 after a 46-31 loss to Kansas City Metro Academy on Monday in the Ike Cearfoss Preseason Tournament in Richmond.
If that wasn’t hard enough, the Fillies have also been battling sickness with their top two secondary ball-handlers Colbi Riley and Toni Macha.
That leaves a lot of the burden on senior point guard Sydney Wade and the Mavericks took a page from the Trojans’ playbook and designed their defense around denying Wade the ball and making someone else try and beat them.
“Teams have been trying to take Sydney and Toni out of our game plan,” Iola coach Becky Carlson said. “We are going to have to step up and make some shots. And we will. We took a lot of shots, but we just couldn’t get any to fall.”
Wade was held scoreless in the first half and the Mavericks built a 22-16 halftime lead.
“It is frustrating for her, because she is used to running our team,” Carlson said.
Wade was able to free herself up for six points in the third quarter, but her teammates went cold and those were the only six points Iola scored in the period.
The openings for shooters are there, according to Carlson, with Wade being double-teamed. It is just a matter of time before they start falling.
“If you pull one out, there has to be an opening and that high-post is open, but we just couldn’t get it there quickly enough,” Carlson said. “We will figure it out.”
Iola cut the lead to ten early in the fourth quarter, but that was as close as they got.
Macha was the team’s leading scorer with eight points but was clearly hampered by her sickness and Carlson kept a close watch to make sure she didn’t push Macha or Riley too hard.
“I’m trying to be careful with them,” Carlson said. “They are the type of girls that aren’t going to back off. They are going to keep trying to fight through it.”
UP NEXT
Iola faces K.C. Christian in the consolation bracket on Thursday at 3:30 p.m.
